Those still making their way to Rome included: Egyptian Patriarch Antonios Naguib, and Cardinals Karl Lehmann of Germany, Jean-Baptiste Pham of Vietnam, Kazimierz Nycz of Poland and John Tong Hon of Hong Kong, the Vatican said.

Lehmann is Bishop of Mainz, It's 595 miles from Mainz to Rome. You could do that in a day if you're willing to get a numb butt and chug a Red Bull or two.

Gosling:Those still making their way to Rome included: Egyptian Patriarch Antonios Naguib, and Cardinals Karl Lehmann of Germany, Jean-Baptiste Pham of Vietnam, Kazimierz Nycz of Poland and John Tong Hon of Hong Kong, the Vatican said.

Lehmann is Bishop of Mainz, It's 595 miles from Mainz to Rome. You could do that in a day if you're willing to get a numb butt and chug a Red Bull or two.

This. I once made the drive from Portland, Maine to Atlanta in under 24 hours.

Someone will submit a great headline for a story about the papal election that goes green.Someone else submits this same headline for another unrelated story on the papal election the following day.We see the same headline on the main page every day for the next 4 weeks. Farkers complain in every thread.Book it. Gonna happen

Meanwhile, preparations for the conclave continued with Michelangelo's frescoed Sistine Chapel closing at 1 p.m. to visitors... Construction work involves installing a false floor to cover anti-bugging devices and even it out

Rick-mind-if-I-call-you-Dick:Meanwhile, preparations for the conclave continued with Michelangelo's frescoed Sistine Chapel closing at 1 p.m. to visitors... Construction work involves installing a false floor to cover anti-bugging devices and even it out

Anti-bugging devices?

It's to prevent anyone from eavesdropping. They take the secrecy of the votes very seriously.

KingKauff:Gosling: Those still making their way to Rome included: Egyptian Patriarch Antonios Naguib, and Cardinals Karl Lehmann of Germany, Jean-Baptiste Pham of Vietnam, Kazimierz Nycz of Poland and John Tong Hon of Hong Kong, the Vatican said.

Lehmann is Bishop of Mainz, It's 595 miles from Mainz to Rome. You could do that in a day if you're willing to get a numb butt and chug a Red Bull or two.

This. I once made the drive from Portland, Maine to Atlanta in under 24 hours.

Think you could run out to Texarkana and bring back a load of Coors in under 28 hours? I got a boy running in the Southern Classic tomorrow, and when he wins I want to celebrate in style.

Darling: Of course, people have been making that stupid joke about us Darlings for centuries. Blackadder Goes Forth stole most of their jokes from the British Army. Many of them are antediluvian.

Monty Python Colonel: Stop! Stop the sketch! This is getting silly. And we did that joke when Aitkenson was in short pants.

Joe Miller: Do I hear people making a fuss about stolen jokes? Who do you think the British Army stole their ancestral jokes from? Joe Miller's Jest Book. The original. Not one of the thousands of knock-offs and American editions.

Rowan Aitkinson: But scarcely any of the jokes in Joe Miller's Jest Book are yours. I make the count three.

NeoCortex42:Rick-mind-if-I-call-you-Dick: Meanwhile, preparations for the conclave continued with Michelangelo's frescoed Sistine Chapel closing at 1 p.m. to visitors... Construction work involves installing a false floor to cover anti-bugging devices and even it out

Anti-bugging devices?

It's to prevent anyone from eavesdropping. They take the secrecy of the votes very seriously.

ThatGuyFromTheInternet:NeoCortex42: Rick-mind-if-I-call-you-Dick: Meanwhile, preparations for the conclave continued with Michelangelo's frescoed Sistine Chapel closing at 1 p.m. to visitors... Construction work involves installing a false floor to cover anti-bugging devices and even it out

Anti-bugging devices?

It's to prevent anyone from eavesdropping. They take the secrecy of the votes very seriously.

NeoCortex42:ThatGuyFromTheInternet: NeoCortex42: Rick-mind-if-I-call-you-Dick: Meanwhile, preparations for the conclave continued with Michelangelo's frescoed Sistine Chapel closing at 1 p.m. to visitors... Construction work involves installing a false floor to cover anti-bugging devices and even it out

Anti-bugging devices?

It's to prevent anyone from eavesdropping. They take the secrecy of the votes very seriously.

TeamEd:Anyone care to explain why the word "black" is taboo in the US?

Because you must be a racist so shutup. That's why.

But seriously. It is political correctness runa muck. We can't say black. Hell, when a person's mental development is retarded relative to norms we can't say retarded either.

We also have a cycle to go with the madness. Eventually the NEW word becomes a bad word and we need a newer one. For example.

Negro was declared bad, so we went to black.Black was declared bad so we went to african american (despite the fact that not all are of African lineage).It is only a matter of time until the PC police issue the next memo.

I've never called anyone african-american, but I suppose a lot of people around here do. Frankly, living in a small town in the Midwest, referring to someone as "black" is probably the correct word. Heck, even my sweet old grandma says "coloreds".

She told me story a couple weeks ago about my grandfather, when the family lived in a tiny town in Kansas. One day the priest came to their home and asked if my grandfather would be a witness in a wedding. He said sure, and showed up the next day to a seemingly empty church. When he got inside he saw that it was a black man and a white woman marrying. He limped up to the steps (he had polio as a child) and acted as their witness. I guess they were invited to a LOT less town events after that when word got around. My grandfather, being a funny guy and owner of the only radio station in the county, decided to play nothing but jazz, blues and other "black music" for a month straight.

TeamEd:As a Canadian, I took immense pleasure when the US media used to refer to Michaelle Jean as "Canada's African-American Governor General."

Up here if you have reason to refer to someone's race at all, it's "Black," "Black Canadian," or sometimes if you want to be more specific "Caribbean Canadian."

Anyone care to explain why the word "black" is taboo in the US?

Short answer: Jesse Jackson. He told everybody to say "African American" just like they say "German American" or "Italian American" for other immigrants. He had a huge profile in the 80s after running for President twice, so people listened to him.

Most people don't care between "black" and "African American" although the preference is "black" for informal settings and "African American" for formal settings. They're basically interchangeable terms in conversation, and any further racial distinction is usually discouraged in polite society - we don't say "quadroon" any more, for example, or "high yellow" or "mulatto" or other old-school racist terms. That stuff has generally gone the way of "miscegenation" laws and "separate but equal" but I would imagine some douchebag skinhead somewhere still keeps that crap alive.